Shaved with a straight razor, 49+ years ago in the Corps. Found my old razors several months ago. Started with you tube videos...several Lynn Abrams. They led me to your store.
Purchased seven stones, 220/1000 Norton, 4K/8K Norton, Naniwa 12K, Atoma #400 and Shapton 16K. Strop, paste etc. Started honing, and whew! It is not like honing a pocket knife!
Found the PDF file by Prof. Dr. John D. Verhoeven. Between Abrams videos and less strokes are better, I finally got it right. Shaved three days ago and only cut myself five times...did not count nicks. Kept going after the first two cuts and got a little better, but not much. Have not seen that much blood in a long time. Only shave every few days, so a few more won't hurt. The experience really hooked me on my razors again.
Still have lots of questions. Hope ya'll don't mind if I start with one? Just ordered the three or four small Coticule stones. Thinking the 4K/8K stones would hone better with slurry? Is that true? Thanks Semper Fi!